video;

[fadeling]

[The angle of the video is strange--Cole's not too great with technology and to be honest, he's mostly been avoiding it. For the most part he just looks...confused. Everything was so dark here most of the time and while he can't complain about the brighter tone, he still isn't sure that he trusts it.]

Is it too bright? I can't tell.

[Cryptic as always, it seems. He may not even know that he's being recorded.]

Defeated darkness, driving and driven, but now it's bright and burning.

[Confusing. The entire world is confusing outside the Fade. And this place is even more so.

But after a moment he looks down at the camera, still looking a little lost. But then, doesn't he always?]

Is it helping?

Comments

[enchangement]

An impermanent friend seems sad. Though all friends are.

[fadeling]

Not always. Sometimes they just forget.

[enchangement]

[ River tilts her head into the camera. ]

By force or fortune?

[fadeling]

Both, sometimes. But faces fade, forgotten and falling to find something they lost and can't remember. They don't want to forget but people do forget.

Friends make it harder to.

[enchangement]

They don't want to forget but people do forget, the images tattered at the edges or burned away.

Friends make it harder to. Family make it harder, too.

[fadeling]

Sometimes it helps to forget if it burns. Breaking brighter only brings more burning.

[enchangement]

Sometimes there are no choices, sometimes nothing helps.

[fadeling]

I have to try. I can't hear the hurting and not help.

[enchangement]

You can hear it?

[fadeling]

Yes. It sings, too, soft and sad, sighing seeking solace. Loud and quiet together, points pricked in pain. I help.

[enchangement]

She hears it. She hears all of it. It sings, it dances, it screams and shrieks and hums itself to sleep.

She hears all of them.

[fadeling]

Does she help when she hears?

[enchangement]

She always hears.

She tries to help.

[fadeling]

Good. It might help her, too.

[enchangement]

Have you always been able to hear?

[fadeling]

Yes. I have to hear or I can't help.

[enchangement]

What's your name?

[fadeling]

I don't have one. Not anymore. But I used to be Cole. You can call me that too.

[enchangement]

Hello, used to be Cole. [ It's a joke, see? She even smiles for it. ]

Her name is River.

[fadeling]

Hello. Is she somewhere else?

[enchangement]

She is here.

[fadeling]

Oh. [He's bad at things like that.]

Sorry. I don't know, always. The words are different outside the Fade.

[enchangement]

That's okay. Her way of the vernacular takes patience and time to learn, often and always.

What is the Fade? How do the words work there?

[fadeling]

It's a different place. Better, for spirits. They come from there in dreams and desires. It's... easier there but I got lost, stuck and silent. But the words only mean one thing. People make them complicated.

[enchangement]

Context and language and knowing and feeling all collide. It's never easy.

You hear the suffering. It's easier if you hear the meaning too, sometimes. Sometimes it's not.

Sorry if she's confusing.

Are you from the Fade?